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Labour Minister Kevin Flynn told a Fergus grocer concerned about rapid increases in the minimum wage that most “decent, law-abiding Ontario businesses will be largely unaffected” by the government-mandated changes.

“I was offended obviously,” Jackie Fraser, co-owner of Fraberts Fresh Food, said after receiving the signed e-mail. “If they actually think that the vast majority of decent law-abiding Ontario businesses would be largely unaffected, then they aren’t hearing us because we’re telling them loudly that we are going to be affected very, very negatively.”

Fraser said she considers her business, which sells locally-grown and produced food, to be decent and law-abiding, but she doesn’t know how it can continue with the higher minimum wage.

Fraser wrote an online open letter to Premier Kathleen Wynne after her government announced that the minimum wage would rise to $15 an hour by Jan. 1, 2019.

Currently 11.40 an hour, the hourly minimum wage will increase to $11.60 on Oct. 1 and jump to $14 on Jan. 1 — a year before there’s another $1-per-hour hike.

Emily Williams, a spokesman for Flynn, said in an e-mail that not everyone in Ontario is sharing in the benefits of a growing economy, and the government has a responsibility to protect workers.

“While we know higher wages lead to greater job satisfaction and productivity, less turnover and more spending power for lower income earners, we are actively listening to the concerns of businesses,” she said, adding the government will “be bringing forward some initiatives this fall to help business with the transition.”

Other jurisdictions that are going to a $15-an-hour minimum wage are phasing it in over three to seven years, Fraser said.

“When I crunch the numbers, the dollar value increase is more than what my profit will be, so it actually puts us in the red as opposed to decreasing our profits,” she said.

The small business owner said she’s not impressed by Wynne’s promises to help companies absorb the wage hikes.

“I don’t want a subsidy, I don’t want a hand out, and I wouldn’t qualify for that because I’m not a restaurant,” Fraser said. “I just want her to not mess it up to begin with so she doesn’t have to fix it.”